Chris Miller

Now he was poised to lead TI’s strategy of offshoring some of its production to Asia

His first meeting with Taiwan’s powerful and savvy economy minister, K. T. Li, ended acrimoniously when the minister declared that intellectual property was something “imperialists used to bully less-advanced countries.”

Li wasn’t wrong to see Shepherd as an agent of America’s empire.

Li eventually realized that Taiwan would benefit from integrating itself more deeply with the United States.

From South Korea to Taiwan, Malaysia to Singapore, anti-Communist governments were seeking assurance that America’s retreat from Vietnam wouldn’t leave

them standing alone

They were also seeking jobs and investment that could address the economic dissatisfaction that drove some of their populations toward Communism

Singapore’s restive working class was majority ethnic Chinese. Beijing was searching for allies—and probing for U.S. weakness

In Washington, U.S. strategists feared the coming collapse of American-backed South Vietnam would send shock waves across Asia. Foreign

No one was more worried about the impending Communist victory in Vietnam than the government in Taiwan, which still claimed to rule all of China